And you hit upon all the things I absolutely hate myself; I think we’re clones, of a sort. I will say that I don’t mind people promoting something they wouldn’t buy so much, but it depends on how it’s done. I’d hate the blatant lie, but if someone introduced something based on research, or a new product they’ve heard about but haven’t tried and is just mentioning it, I don’t mind. But being lied to outright would irk me to no end.

Glad I got you thinking; let’s see how often I can do that.

I think this is a very good question, “How far are you willing to go for promotion?”

I’ve done things in the past that I would never do now. I no longer use popups or popunders, and the more I see them, the more I hate them.

The same goes in for newsletter subscription forms that slide in across the page or follow you up and down the page. That just shrieks of desperation.

I know that testing shows that more people subscribe when these forms are used, but I’m willing to do without those subscribers. If someone isn’t willing to do a little looking on the page to subscribe, that’s fine with me. They probably are not in the market I’m targeting.

If the content I write won’t attract a subscriber, I don’t want to resort to “tricks” just to get bigger numbers.

I certainly don’t want to use tricks that irritate my core readership just to pick up a few readers on the fringe of what I do.

I want to build a substantial presence and I want my readers to trust what I say.

I am not looking for negative publicity and I try not to promote something I wouldn’t buy myself.

That narrows the choices I can make, and that’s fine with me. In a world of ever-growing possibilities, ruling out huge swaths of choices makes it a bit easier for me to keep on track and do what I set out to do.

Less bells and whistles, more attention to customer service.

I’ll take integrity over technical tricks, any day.

Thanks for asking the question. I enjoyed stopping and thinking about it for a few minutes.

Act on your dream!

JD

John Dilbeck´s last blog post..What is your opinion of social networking?